The inventive concept relates to a method of fabricating a semiconductor device. In particular, the inventive concept relates to the manufacturing of transistors including a gate electrode and a gate dielectric interposed between the gate electrode and a channel region of the transistor.
Silicon dioxide has been conventionally used a gate dielectric of a transistor. As semiconductor devices have been miniaturized to meet a demand for more compact electronic products, transistors have become smaller and as a result, the thickness of silicon dioxide gate dielectrics have decreased to increase the gate capacitance and thereby ensure a sufficient device performance. However, decreasing the thickness of a silicon dioxide gate dielectric can allow for leakage current to increase, i.e., can lead to reduced device reliability, for example.
One technique to obviate this problem is to replace the silicon dioxide gate dielectric with high-k dielectric material. High-k dielectrics can be used to produce comparatively higher gate capacitance without the tendency to facilitate leakage current. Research aimed at improving the performance of miniaturized semiconductor devices through the manufacturing of the gate dielectric is still actively ongoing, though.